In June of last year, I finally decided to commit to an Android device. I had carried every flagship iPhone up through that point from the original iPhone to the 5S. To the world around me, I heaped the praise into a life transforming device, but in my tech circles, and on my blog, I frequently posted about my frustration, mostly with shackles and intentional limitations imposed. So last year, why I decided to make the jump to Android. I outlined 10 reasons why I was finally ready to make the jump to Android’s 4.4 release, KitKat. A year has passed. It's time to revisit my original assertions and complaints with some follow up and see where I stand one year later.

I cited several reasons for choosing the KitKat release as the marker heralding Android’s readiness.

I've been waiting a long time for Android to get to the point that it was fast and responsive enough, with a big enough application warehouse, wide enough support, and a smooth enough experience, to support me. Android is maturing with a consistent, system-wide look-and-feel, almost every major service now has an Android app as the counterpart to its iOS-first experience, and has a bright future with wearables, home automation, and more.

So, let’s approach this in two sections: first, I’ll review my own iOS complaints as they stand today on Android. Second, I’ll score Android as a standalone mobile OS experience and register a list of complaints that I have with Android Lollipop similar to what I did with iOS last year. Before we jump in, let’s look at all of the devices I’ve carried in the last year:

iPhone 5S

HTC One M8

A work device running a second phone number

Moto X (2013)

my first Android device, noticeably laggy, returned immediately

Nexus 5

my first full-time Android phone, loved it, eventually upgraded because I found it underpowered

Moto X (2014)

first modern flagship, bought the day it was released, used it until it hard failed. Motorola replaced it.